The use of magnetic tapes has increased in popularity over the years. They can be used to store a variety of information such as audio or visual signals as well as binary data readable by a computer system. The popularity of magnetic tapes is due in large part to the fact that they can be erased and reused.
In the past, tapes were erased primarily by two methods. In one method the reel of tape was physically removed from the environment from which it is normally used and placed into a bulk tape eraser mechanism. This method is disadvantageous because it requires the user to physically remove the tape and carry it to another area where the bulk tape eraser apparatus is located. Many conventional bulk tape erasers require even further interaction from the user, e.g., several passes of the tape must be made underneath the erasing or degaussing head in different angular orientations. In those applications where a large number of tapes must be erased, it becomes apparent that this process is very inefficient.
A second method of erasing tapes employs the well known use of a degaussing head over which the entire length of the tape is passed. Unfortunately, this requires that the tape be completely unwound from the reel in order to accomplish the erasure. This technique takes a considerable length of time which can be especially disadvantageous with large reels of tape such as are commonly used in computer tape drive transport units.
The present invention is directed to solving one or more of these problems.